US public says news coverage of Michael Jackson's death was too much

The US public closely tracked the sudden death of Michael Jackson last week, but nearly two-in-three Americans say the news media gave too much coverage to the story, according to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted June 26-29 byPew Research Center.
At the same time, half say the media struck the right balance between reporting on Jackson’s musical legacy and the problems in his personal life.
With reports about Jackson’s June 25th death in Los Angeles dominating media coverage at week’s end, 30% say they followed these stories very closely. A similar share (31%) say this was the story they followed more closely than any other.
Blacks followed the death of the singer more closely than the US population as a whole. Eight-in-ten African Americans say they followed news about Jackson’s death very closely, compared with 22% of whites. Women followed the story more closely than men (35% very closely compared with 26%). Close to four-in-ten (38%) of those under 40 say they followed the music icon’s death very closely, compared with 27% of those between 40 and 64 and 20% of those 65 and older.
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